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Quantum researchers engineer extremely precise phonon lasers

When lasers were invented in the 1960s, they opened new avenues for scientific discovery and everyday applications, from scanners at the grocery store to corrective eye surgery. Conventional lasers control photons—individual particles of light—but over the past 20 years, scientists have invented lasers that control other fundamental particles, including phonons—individual particles of vibration or sound. Controlling phonons could open even more possibilities with lasers, such as taking advantage of unique quantum properties like entanglement.

A new squeezed phonon laser developed by researchers at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology provides precise control over phonons at the nanoscale level. This could give new insights into the nature of gravity, particle acceleration, and quantum physics.

In a paper in Nature Communications, the researchers describe how they coax these individual particles of mechanical motion to behave like a laser.

Finding the ‘quantum needle’ in a haystack: New filtering method can isolate photons

In quantum technologies, everything depends on the ability to detect the properties carried by a single photon. But in the real world, that photon of interest is often buried in a sea of unwanted light—a true “needle in a haystack” challenge that currently limits the deployment of many applications, including secure quantum communication, quantum sensors used in telescope networks, as well as the interconnection of quantum computers to accelerate the development of new drugs and materials.

At the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), the team of Professor José Azaña, in collaboration with Professor Roberto Morandotti’s group, has developed a surprisingly simple and energy-efficient way to overcome this obstacle. The work was carried out by Benjamin Crockett during his Ph.D. at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre. He recently completed his degree and is now a Banting postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Their method not only reduces noise but, more importantly, recovers essential quantum properties that would otherwise be lost in bright environments where current technologies fail.

Quadratic gravity theory reshapes quantum view of Big Bang

Waterloo scientists have developed a new way to understand how the universe began, and it could change what we know about the Big Bang and the earliest moments of cosmic history. Their work suggests that the universe’s rapid early expansion could have arisen naturally from a deeper, more complete theory of quantum gravity. The paper, “Ultraviolet completion of the Big Bang in quadratic gravity,” appears in Physical Review Letters.

Dr. Niayesh Afshordi, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute (PI), led the research team that explored a novel method of combining gravity with quantum physics, the rules that govern how the smallest particles in the universe behave. While general relativity has been successful for more than a century, it breaks down at the extreme conditions that existed at the birth of the universe. To address this problem, the team used Quadratic Quantum Gravity, which remains mathematically consistent even at extremely high energies—similar to the kind present during the Big Bang.

Most existing explanations for the Big Bang rely on Einstein’s theory of gravity, plus additional components added by hand. This new approach offers a more unified picture that connects the earliest moments of the universe to the well-tested cosmology scientists observe today.

A universal scheme can verify any quantum state

Quantum technologies, devices that can process, store, or detect information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical devices in some tasks or scenarios. Despite their potential, verifying that these devices work correctly and truly realize desired quantum states can be challenging, particularly when they cannot be fully examined or inspected.

One approach to verify quantum states or measurements is known as self-testing. This is a technique that allows quantum scientists to confirm the properties of a quantum system solely by analyzing its outputs, instead of examining how it operates internally.

Researchers at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the University of Gdansk, and the Polish Academy of Sciences recently introduced a new universal scheme that could be used to self-test any quantum state or measurement. Their protocol, introduced in a paper published in Nature Physics, works by placing a device within a simple star-shaped quantum network and assessing the correlations between measurements obtained from different outputs that share entangled quantum states, to determine whether they are aligned with theoretical predictions.

Novel protocol reconstructs quantum states in large-scale experiments up to 96 qubits

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical computers on some computationally demanding tasks. Despite their potential, as the size of quantum computers increases, reliably describing and measuring the states driving their functioning becomes increasingly difficult.

One mathematical approach to simplify the description of quantum systems entails the use of matrix-product operators (MPOs). These are mathematical representations that allow researchers to break down very large systems into a long chain of connected smaller pieces.

Researchers at Université Grenoble Alpes, Technical University of Munich, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, University of Innsbruck and University of Bologna recently developed a new protocol that could be used to learn the MPO representations of quantum states in real, large-scale quantum experiments. Their protocol, presented in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, has so far been found to reliably reconstruct states in quantum systems including up to 96 qubits.

In wrangling dark matter, some scientists find inspiration in the Torah, Krishna and Christ

When an invisible entity making up 85% of the universe’s mass stumps the greatest scientific minds of our time, awe is an understandable response.

Physicists call it dark matter, a substance they describe as the cosmic glue, the scaffolding, a web that uses gravity to corral, shape and hold together stars, planets and galaxies. Yet nobody knows exactly what it is.

Dark matter’s existence is only inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter. Together with dark energy—a mysterious force causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate—they are the biggest scientific mysteries of our time.

In world first, antimatter taken on test drive at CERN

CERN scientists on Tuesday pulled off the unprecedented feat of transporting antiprotons by road, successfully test-driving the world’s first antimatter delivery system, with an eye to one day supplying research labs across Europe.

“The particles returned… so this was a success,” CERN physicist Stefan Ulmer told reporters after the large truck came back from a 10-kilometer drive around the campus of Europe’s main physics laboratory.

While that might not sound like a big distance, Ulmer, a spokesman for CERN’s BASE experiment probing the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe, said it marked the “starting point to a new era.”

Lab-based mini-atmosphere reveals how turbulence changes on different scales

With a new lab-based experiment, researchers in the UK and France have recreated the characteristic cascades of energy and angular momentum that underpin key features of Earth’s atmosphere. Reporting in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Peter Read at the University of Oxford has gained fresh insights into how energy fluctuations in turbulent flows are linked to their size, while also uncovering behaviors that current atmospheric models can’t yet explain.

For all its complexity, many large-scale properties of Earth’s atmosphere can be captured by relatively simple mathematical laws. Among the most important is the “cascade” of energy and rotational motion between flows spanning vastly different scales: from jet streams stretching thousands of kilometers, down to tiny eddies just a few meters across.

This cascade is central to understanding the effect of turbulence. In modern atmospheric theory, there is an inverse relationship between the size of a flow and the kinetic energy contained in its fluctuations, which allows researchers to describe turbulence using a kinetic energy spectrum. This in turn helps climatologists to track how energy is distributed across different length scales.

Scientists Say Washing Dishes With a Sponge Has a Concerning Side Effect

Kitchen sponges shed microplastics, but water use drives most environmental harm. Real-world and lab data show reducing water consumption has the greatest impact. Kitchen sponges may look harmless, but each scrub can release tiny plastic fragments that slip unnoticed down the drain. These micropl

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